Well what can I say, took the 'old' filter out of my car last night "ITG" has been in about 8000 miles..................... ucccccccckkkkk it was really crappy and most noticeably THERE WAS OIL ON THE MAFF SIDE OF THE FILTER...... I could see where the oil had started to go down the plastic housing......


cleaned and replaced with a nice shiny metal rimmed sti item and WOW what a difference........... having driven the car last night I can honestly say 3 things

1 Car pulls stronger @ higher revs

2 Nice induction/chattering noise at low/high revs (hopefully i connected everything back on properly )

3 Piece of mind over the CRAPPY ITG item as now using a paper sti item (aka tony burns)

Hawk

 

i use STi panels too, even performed better then the K&N induction i had.

ordered a couple from http://www.japanparts.com/ to keep me going, £30 each

 

Its a quality product... nuff said.

Agree with the 3 points made. Even above the K&N filter that was in there, that I wasn’t ammused by as the car was sold to me by a well known dealer in the south, after its 10K service!!! warranty!?!! thats another story and I dont want to go down that road.

 

what took you so long? I was the first person i know of to import this filter to the UK, been telling people for years about it but they still bought crappy oiled ones.

Bob Rawle has done some testing and found its well capable of over 350BHP/Lbft in the standard air box assembly. Above that its starts to lose out to a good induction kit, but below that people are wasting money and losing performance by bolting on all these aftermarket setups that just suck hot air in or contaminate the MAF.

and it's not paper, its a fibrous synthetic material. Paper filters strangle the engine at high rpm, the stock UK turbo paper filter is terible above 6Krpm compared to this STi item.

 

are there different types of STI panel filter, Hawk mentions a shiny metal rimmed one? mine is black?

 

sorry John I am suitably chastised.................

i'll have to get the part number from it, i got it from scoobyworld?? i think definately silver/grey outer rim on it.

I have to say though loads of people recommended the ITG filter it was fitted by TSL i was VERY VERY surprised to see the oil had come THROUGH the filter to the maf side tho.....

 

it looks like this.

 

yep that looks like mine the metal rim is a silver grey (however mine hasnt fallen apart like yours????? )

and also it WASNT from scoobyworld it was from the other one ermmm

scooby..........??????


grrr damm memory thats why i didnt get one before John I forgot u said they were this good

now my mystery machine is even better

 

it's best to stick to dry filters on a car using a MAF sensor unless its the very early hot wire MAF that was designed with oil contamination in mind, those have a burn cycle to remove the oil from the sensor.

K&N are probably the best solution after a dry fliter with regards to MAF protection, a foam based filter is the worst IMHO.

 

LOL Scoobymania is what you are trying to remember. I asked Mike to import this for me, he then decided to stock them. Since then other people have started to sell them too. They were designed for the GroupN STi spec C originally and are part of the groupN homologation package.

 

Im deffo glad i changed mine so quickly GOD only knows the damage that could have been caused in the next few thousand miles and im sure there is a lot better top end breathing than the ITG unit its replaced.


What could the fluttering sound be that im now hearing (no its not my loose brain)
when i accelerate from low speeds there is a fluttering sound, also when coming off boost at high revs its also there, a lot louder at low speeds tho??


THATS IT SCOOBYMANIA - mental note must add to favourites (thx john)

 

flutter could be a bit of turbo boost surge or the waste gate. It's probably breathing a lot better now so have a look at your boost levels, yours is quite modified if i remember so you may be on the peak of safe flow rate for your turbo.

 

Ok i think i maybe should have a boost guage aswell !!!!!!! im sure you told me to get one of those aswell............damm these memory lapses again

Im sure sometime ill get to show this car to someone i remember getting royally flamed for it 20 months ago lol

thanx again John

 

I recently bought one of these for my MY03 STI Type UK. Are these supposed to be a flush fit? It fits perfectly in place of the old filter, but when you try to put the airbox cover back on I had to bend the two slot fins in order to clip it back on. Or are there different model STI filters? BTW this was bought in the group buy.

 

it should be a perfect fit. Check there isnt a bit of excess rubber from the moulding process just holding it off a little. Only one version that i know of.

 

John,

None that I can see.

Ben

 

it still closes OK though? just very tight on the bottom 2 locators? I remember mine was quite tight down there too, but still closed OK.

 

I am running with this filter too and am very pleased with it having removed an ITG

Any idea when these filters should be changed - how often ??

 

It depends on use really. Follow the OEM filter change recomendation is probably a good policy. I used to take it out mid change mileage and give it a tap to get rid of any loose particles on the underside like shards of leaves, i found all sorts in the airbox whilst doing this too, anything from a kit kat wrapper to huge leaves. I would then spin it round so the writing was upside down, because the airflow into the filter is not uniform, so you gave it a cleaner area to work with for the 2nd part of its life.

 

How much do you end up paying, (delivery, taxes etc) if you get one from japanparts.com ?

 

Wheres the best place to get an Sti filter (read cheapest )

 

Excuse a dumb question (if it is one), but will these fit in a WRX 03 ? If not anyone know of a suitable replacement ?

Cheers,
Pearcey

 

Thanks for the tip John - hadn't even thought about fitting it the other way round to even out the Filter usage

 

Pleasure, helps them last a bit longer which is always handy.

 

Wouldn't reversing the filter half way through it's life create the possibility of particles held in it being sucked into the engine and damaging it? Sounds a bit daft to me.

 

No, he's talking about turning it round, not turning it OVER, it only goes in one way up.

 

Is the Japanparts filter REALLY the same as the one John is talking about?
The picture on Japanparts is the same colour as a std STi filter and appears to have no mesh?

Nick

 

YES it is, the picture on the site is not like the filter in real life, its like johns photos.

 

Doh, looking at a different one...
Nick

 

Just fitted one to My 03 WRX PPP took about 20 secs

John